>What is meant by A1 sheets for presentations? When given a scale of 1:100
>on a drawing, is that metric? How is it read? Is there a good reference on
>conventional design and construction in New Zealand?
>
During my stay in the last non-metric country on Earth I always had the
most horrendous time trying to work out paper sizes and scales. Very
strange. A scale of 1:100 is a typical metric one and means exactly that 1
unit on the paper corresponds to 100 units in reality. Other typical scales
are 1:50 (for details), 1:200 and 1:500.
The 'A' series of paper sizes are the standard ones used for arch and eng
drawings. The largest is an A0 sheet, defined as having an area of one
square metre and sides in the ratio of one to the square root of 2, that is
1:1.414. An A1 sheet is exactly half this size, an A2 is one quarter and so
on. A4 is about the size of a US legal sheet (I think) and is the standard
paper size for writing. Most drawings would be done on A1 size.
Why the ratio of 1:1.414? That way you can cut an A0 into 2 A1's, an A1
into 2 A2's and so on. Every A size has sides in exactly the same ratio,
and is half the area of the next larger. Using reprographics, every size
can be enlarged by a factor of 2 into the next size. That is why the
standard pen sizes are in the same ratio (1:1.414), so that when enlarged
or reduced the line thicknesses increase or decrease to the next standard
size.
Yours,
Garry Stevens
Dept of Architectural and Design Science
University of Sydney
NSW 2006
AUSTRALIA
>on a drawing, is that metric? How is it read? Is there a good reference on
>conventional design and construction in New Zealand?
>
During my stay in the last non-metric country on Earth I always had the
most horrendous time trying to work out paper sizes and scales. Very
strange. A scale of 1:100 is a typical metric one and means exactly that 1
unit on the paper corresponds to 100 units in reality. Other typical scales
are 1:50 (for details), 1:200 and 1:500.
The 'A' series of paper sizes are the standard ones used for arch and eng
drawings. The largest is an A0 sheet, defined as having an area of one
square metre and sides in the ratio of one to the square root of 2, that is
1:1.414. An A1 sheet is exactly half this size, an A2 is one quarter and so
on. A4 is about the size of a US legal sheet (I think) and is the standard
paper size for writing. Most drawings would be done on A1 size.
Why the ratio of 1:1.414? That way you can cut an A0 into 2 A1's, an A1
into 2 A2's and so on. Every A size has sides in exactly the same ratio,
and is half the area of the next larger. Using reprographics, every size
can be enlarged by a factor of 2 into the next size. That is why the
standard pen sizes are in the same ratio (1:1.414), so that when enlarged
or reduced the line thicknesses increase or decrease to the next standard
size.
Yours,
Garry Stevens
Dept of Architectural and Design Science
University of Sydney
NSW 2006
AUSTRALIA